Weeks cover

Definition

Stock on hand divided by the rate of sale, expressed as the number of weeks the current stock would last at current sales. Read by line, it shows what will run out and what will not; read as one average, it hides both.

Field note

Weeks cover is the depressing measure of how little you have of the things customers want and how much you have of the things nobody wants.

Board question

Which lines are under four weeks and which are over twenty, and what is the plan for each?

Applied through

Operational Excellence in the Cat’s Whiskers, internally ready before externally funded; the Golden Quarter playbook reads it as one of the seven foundations where a binding constraint can hide before peak.

Related terms

• Sell-through
• Markdown
• Cost to serve
• Returns rate